Elder Law

07/13/2018

Police are investigating whether legendary comic book writer Stan Lee is a victim of elder abuse.

It seems that 95-year-old Stan Lee is at the height of his fame. The characters he created for Marvel Comics currently make the film industry millions of dollars annually in film after film. Lee himself appears in a cameo role in every film.

After Lee's wife passed away, a man named Keya Morgan stepped in to assist Lee with his affairs. Morgan is on probation for an unrelated matter. It is claimed that Morgan moved Lee out of his home and will not let friends and family visit Lee.

Police and a social worker were sent to Morgan's home to conduct a welfare check on Lee. However, Morgan called 911 on them and falsely reported that he was being burglarized. Morgan now faces criminal charges for filing a false police report. A restraining order against Morgan has also been issued by a court prohibiting him from contacting Lee.

While it is not yet known whether Lee is a victim of elder abuse, a common sign is when a caretaker isolates an elderly person from other friends and family.

07/10/2018

A California Appeals Court has issued a stay order against a lower court's ruling that had declared the state's doctor-assisted suicide law unconstitutional.

Several states have passed laws allowing doctors to assist terminally ill patients who want to commit suicide. Whenever these laws are passed, there is always some controversy. However, it has not been nearly as what has occurred since California passed its law allowing the practice.

California has seen groups consisting of both doctors and religious-affiliated people fight hard against the law. In May of 2018, the law’s opponents won a major victory when a district court judge declared that the law violated the state's constitution.

However, it was not a complete victory. This is because the judge did not rule on the merits of doctor-assisted suicide. Instead, the judge declared the manner in which the law had been passed as unconstitutional. That partial victory is now in doubt, as an appeals court issued an immediate stay of the lower court's order, as KVOA reports in "Court reinstates doctor-assisted suicide in California."

The California law is being closely monitored by interest groups on both sides of the debate over doctor-assisted suicide.

Interest groups are also following the law because it included several provisions mandating that the state collect data about how the law was working and to issue regular reports about it. Both sides hope what the data reveals will be helpful for them, as other states consider similar laws.

07/09/2018

A New York attorney has pled guilty to criminal charges stemming from a scheme to defraud his elderly clients of millions of dollars for his own personal benefit.

There has been an aggressive effort in recent years by law enforcement agencies to combat the growing problem of elder abuse. It is a type of abuse that can be very difficult to prevent, since many of the abusers are people that the elderly person trusted before the abuse.

In some cases, the abuse comes from attorneys who have been hired to assist with the estates of elderly clients. A recent example occurred in the State of New York.

An attorney there had a complicated scheme to handle an elderly couple's estate for his own benefit. The couple apparently wanted their money to go to charity and their heirs. However, the attorney instead transferred ownership of their property to himself, as The United States Attorney's Office Northern District of New York reports in "Albany Attorney Admits to Stealing from Elderly Clients in $11.8 Million Estate Fraud."

The good news is that this attorney was caught and prosecuted. He has admitted his guilt and faces a potentially long prison sentence for his crimes. This is good because elderly clients should be able to trust that their attorneys will not attempt to cheat them out of their money.

Estate attorneys who would do this type of thing are a small minority. Elderly people, however, should be aware that these things happen, and they should make sure they hire attorneys who are trustworthy. If you are not certain about an attorney, ask people in the community who might have previously hired them, ask for a referral to another attorney for comparison or ask the local Bar association if there are Board Certified lawyers in your area.

07/04/2018

An organization whose purpose is to promote the interests of older Americans might seem unlikely to be worried too much about student loan debt, but the AARP sees the issue as a growing part of its mission.

Many Americans decide to go to college after being in the workforce for some time, even decades. Colleges are typically for younger people.

That means most student loans are taken out relatively early in a person's lifetime. If everything goes well the debtor graduates, finds a job and pays off the loans. However, everything does not always go well and that is increasingly the case for many Americans.

The AARP has two basic issues with the current student loan situation. The first is that an increasing number of elder Americans have defaulted on their loans. As a result, their Social Security benefits are being garnished. The organization is trying to get a law passed to end the garnishment of Social Security benefits.

More generally, the AARP is worried that the increasing amount of debt graduates are carrying is making it difficult for them to save for retirement. Americans generally do not save enough for their retirements. If the student loan situation gets worse in a few decades, elder Americans could be even more unprepared to retire.

It is not as clear currently what can be done about this second problem.

06/22/2018

To get the most out of Social Security benefits, it is very important that older Americans understand how the system works, before they start to get benefits. An alarming number do not.

On the surface, Social Security is a fairly simple concept to grasp. People pay into it while they are working. When they retire, they then get paid benefits that are based on their income when they were working. This seems simple enough. However, what the federal government does is often not that simple.

In a recent survey, 47% percent of respondents over the age of 50 were unable to correctly answer a series of true/false questions about Social Security benefits. This could be a potential problem, because it means that they might not get what they need out of the system when they retire. The Social Security Administration is supposed to assist people with this. However, it can do little more than tell people what their options are when asked.

A good way to learn how to get the most out of Social Security for yourself, is to visit an elder law attorney. The attorney can help you understand how to get the maximum amount of benefits per month and how to weigh that against getting the maximum amount of total benefits in your lifetime.

06/19/2018

When people are at or near retirement age, they can benefit greatly by visiting an elder law attorney. To get the most out of the visit, it is important to know what to expect.

Many people are not quite clear about what elder law attorneys do. Some people think they focus on legal problems specific to their age, such as elder abuse or Medicare problems.

Elder law attorneys can assist with these matters, but they are only part of what elder law attorneys do. They also assist people in preparing for other common problems that can occur when people become older.

Elder law attorneys help people make legal arrangements ahead of time to avoid those problems. Thus, anyone can benefit by visiting an elder law attorney, especially those who are nearing retirement as Tipp News Daily discusses in "Top 10 Questions to Ask Your Elder Law Attorney."

For example, if an elderly person develops dementia or a terminal illness that incapacitates them, then they will need someone else to handle their affairs for them. If they wait until such a person is needed, a court will likely have to appoint someone.

An elder law attorney can prepare the legal documents necessary to avoid having to go through court and help the elderly person to decide ahead of time who to appoint as an “incapacity” decision-maker. Elder law attorneys offer many other services, as well including planning for long-term nursing home care, planning for children and adults with special needs, assistance with estate planning documents, retirement plan legal advice and help understanding Social Security.

Schedule an appointment with and elder law attorney, who can advise you on how to prepare for any potential needs that may arise when you get older.

06/14/2018

In 2015 California passed what many people considered to be a groundbreaking physician-assisted death law. A court has now overturned it.

Advocates and detractors of physician-assisted suicide have been paying close attention to the state of California. A law passed there in 2015 to allow the practice, was thought to be a good opportunity to see how it would work in a large state population, especially since the law contained important provisions concerning record keeping and reporting.

Regular reports on how the law was being used, were also supposed to be issued by the state. While the law is very popular with citizens according to polling data, many doctors were not as impressed and a group of them sued in 2016 to stop the law.

The doctors argued that the law did not adequately define terminal illness, for it to be clear which patients were eligible for physician assistance. The law also exempted people who helped patients with death from liability. The doctors complained that the law was not passed by the legislature following the appropriate procedure. The judge agreed with these claims.

The law’s supporters point out that the ruling was not about the legality of physician-assisted death itself and California has subsequently filed an appeal of the court's ruling.

05/31/2018

If the Louisiana legislature cannot fix a budget shortfall soon, 30,000 nursing home residents in the state will be evicted on July 1st.

It would probably come as a shock for most nursing home residents, if they were suddenly sent an eviction notice. It would be even more shocking if the residents were all on Medicaid and the government was paying for their care.

That is about to happen to some 30,000 nursing home residents in Louisiana who are on Medicaid.

The state faces a revenue shortage and the Louisiana House's budget cuts include Medicaid funding. That would mean that the state Medicaid program will no longer be able to pay for nursing home care, as of July 1.

There is still time for the state to fix this problem. However, there appears to be an impasse between the governor and the legislature over funding. Something similar could also eventually happen in other states.

As the population of the U.S. gets older, Medicaid expenses are growing for both the states and the federal government. Many states are looking for ways to change their programs to save money and the Trump administration has given them greater flexibility to do.

It is not certain how far the administration will allow states to go. For example, Kansas was recently denied its request to limit the number of years a person could be on its program. However, the administration has been more amenable to imposing work requirements on recipients who are not disabled.

05/30/2018

It is common for elderly people to fall in love and want to get married. As part of the process, they need to make more plans than younger couples.

A common image of the elderly is to see them as past the years to fall in love. Could seniors meet someone new, fall in love and get married? In movies and on TV, elderly people who do fall in love are typically played off for laughs or presented as being under the spell of someone much younger who wants their money.

In real life, it is not unusual for an elderly man and an elderly woman to meet each other, fall in love and get married. Sometimes couples meet in the nursing homes where they live. The only difference between young couples and elderly couples is that the elderly may need to do more planning before they get remarried, as Wealth Management explains in "Never Too Old for Love."

The main thing every elderly couple getting married needs is to understand, is that every state has default rules for how spouses must be treated in an estate plan and in medical decision-making. This means that any current estate plans need to be reviewed and changed to account for what the couple would like to do with their estates, and especially as it relates to each partners' children. Advanced medical directives and powers of attorney might also need changing as well.

Elderly people can and do fall in love with each other and get married just like anyone else. Life does not end when people reach a certain age. However, everyone who does get married later in life, needs to make sure that they do the appropriate planning.

05/02/2018

New York recently became the first state to allow a new advanced directive that allows people to decide not to be given food or water if they are incapacitated by dementia.

Many people who suffer from dementia appear to be suffering greatly at the end of their lives, because the dementia has progressed to the point where they have become completely incapacitated. Consequently, they can no longer perform the basic tasks of “daily living” necessary to survive and cannot express their wishes regarding how they would like to be treated.

A dementia victim can live for a long time, if fed and given water. With the ready availability of advanced medical directives, it might seem easy to get one, whereby you refuse food and/or water if you are incapacitated by dementia. However, you cannot provide that advanced directive, unless you happen to live in New York, because it recently became the first state to allow this option as NPR reports in "'Aggressive' Advance Directive Permits Halting Food and Water In Sever Dementia."

People in New York will now have two options. They can direct that they continue to be given food and water, if it appears that they accept and enjoy it. They can also direct that they not be given food and water at all. It is hoped that the new directive will allow people suffering from advanced dementia to pass away more quickly, if that is what they choose in advance.

If this law works well in New York, it could become available in other states. It is still a good idea to get advanced medical directives, even if this particular option is not available in your state of residence.